Famous Meatloaf

This meatloaf has received compliments from everyone who has tried it. It is the result of many years of experimentation and failures that my poor family has had to suffer through.

Ingredients:
2 cup breadcrumbs
600g Beef Mince
500g Pork Mince
1 Zucchini - grated
1 Carrot - Grated
1 Egg
1 clove garlic
BBQ Sauce
Tomato Sauce
Worcestershire Sauce

Method:
Add all the ingredients except sauce in a bowl and mix well by hand. Add the tomato and BBQ sauces to taste (I use about 1/2 cup of each) and a splash of Worcestershire sauce.

Place into loaf pan/s And bake for 30 mins at 180C, then tip it out onto a baking tray and try to get rid of all the liquid fat and oil. Bake for a further 10mins. Aloow to cool for 10 mins and serve.

Quicky - Fish Burgers

This is a really simple recipe that we picked up somewhere and have used it when we get home and don't feel like cooking.

Ingredients:
Long Rolls
Frozen Crumbed Fish Fillets
Lettuce
Mayo
Cheese


Method:
Cook the fish fillets. Stick them on the roll, add lettuce, cheese and mayo. Goes really well with Cajun chips (Chop and boil potatoes, shake in a mixing bowl with Cjun spice mix, oven bake or fry).


Told you it was simple :-)

Throw together: Baked apples and raspberries

It's starting to get cold where I am at the moment. Which means warm deserts are really really attractive at the moment.  Monday night I made Apple and Raspberry Puff Pastry thing, which was really nice, but I was feeling to lazy to get puff pastry out.

(Once again I applogise for bad photo quality).

Ingredients:

Apples (I used Golden Delicious)
Raspberries (I used frozen)
Butter
Brown sugar.
Cream/Ice-cream/yoghurt

1. Preheat your oven to 180C
2. Halve your apples and scoop out the inside.  Place these into a tray, with the scooped side up.
3. In the bottom of each apple, squish a half teaspoon of butter.  Place raspberries in the scooped out bits.  Sprinkle brown sugar on top of each half (approx 1tsp).

4. Put into oven and bake until soft.

 5. Serve with cream/ice-cream/yoghurt.

Tonight I'm making rum bananas for desert.  YUM!

Cheers

Pip

Mulled Wine

So winter is approaching and that means you need to warm up on those chilly nights. My favorite way is to crack out the mulled wine. This is the recipe I have been developing and refining for the last few years. It is also a way to make cheap wine taste good.

Ingredients
12 Whole Cloves
1 long cinnamon stick, snapped in two or three pieces
1/4 cup of sugar (raw, white or caster will all work)
1 whole nutmeg, roughly crushed with a knife
500ml water
Rind of 1 orange, grated or peeled and chopped
Juice of the above mentioned orange
1 apple, skin on, roughly chopped, not cored
1 bottle of red wine, I prefer shiraz or merlot,


Combine all the ingredients except the wine in a saucepan, bring to the boil and then simmer uncovered for 15-20 mins, stirring occasionally. Turn the heat to the lowest setting and then add the wine. Allow it to heat up to a very gentle simmer while covered. How long you simmer it for is up to you (see tips).

Since I can't drink it all at once, I bottle it in a resealable bottle (see below) and reheat when I want to drink. Reheating in the microwave works fine. It lasts about 2 weeks if kept in the fridge.

TIPS

Longer simmering times will create a smoother and richer taste but will reduce the taste of the wine. Short simmer times will maintain the taste of the wine.

The longest I have simmered the wine for for is 2 hours and the shortest was 5 mins. The results are very different so experiment and let us know what works for you.

Remember, this stuff will send you to sleep. I normally drink when I want to go to bed. Enjoy.

Roasted Beetroot Chips

This is now my preferred way to use up leftover beetroot and as a bonus it takes no time at all. They turn out really yum and crispy. The addition of a bit vinegar makes it that much yummier.

Ingredients:
2-3 fresh beetroots
Balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper


To start with preheat your oven to 180 celcius, then slice your beetroot into thin slices, about 2mm thick.











Then you lay them out on a tray (I also use a chip tray if I want some extra crunch), drizzle the balsamic over the top and put salt and pepper on them.

Chuck them in the oven for about 10-15 mins, but make sure you keep an eye on them as I did mine over two shelves and got distracted and some of the bottom ones burnt.







My serving suggestion is to just eat them as is, however in the above pic we served them with bacon wrapped chicken and fried baby potatoes (these recipes will be put up soon).

Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

This is one of my ALL TIME FAVOURITE slow cooker recipes.  It's so simple yet so so yummy.  It also doesn't need a slow cooker to cook, I just find it easier to make it in one.

I'd roasted 3 chooks in my slow cookers the day before so I had plenty of roast chicken.

Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

 Ingredients-

Tinned Tomatoes
Tinned Corn- drained (optional)
Tinned Kidney Beans- drained (optional)
Salsa
4-6 C Chicken Stock
Roast Chicken
Diced onion
Taco Seasoning (either store bought or make your own)

To Serve
Corn Chips
Sour Cream/Greek Yoghurt
Guacamole
Cheese
Olives

1. Chuck everything in the slow cooker.  Let cook for 6-8hrs on Auto or Low.
2. Serve topped with whatever you desire.
3. EAT!

 Seriously, I love this soup! It freezers really well and you can chuck it on top of rice as well for something different.

Don't be afraid to tweak the recipe either! Adding jalapenos or chilli seasoning would add a terrific bite if you prefer yours food hotter.

Enjoy!

Cheese Muffins

This is one of my favourite throw together recipes because it's so easy to modify!

What you need for this recipe is-

• Self Raising Flour
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup cheese *

1) Preheat oven to 180C and spray a muffin tin (either standard or mini).
2) Mix egg and milk together.  Add milk & egg mixture to flour and mix until just combined. 
3) Add cheese, and fold in.
4) Spoon mixture into pan
5) Bake until toothpick comes out clean (approximately 10-15mins)

* There are a lot of different options for fillings.  This base works best for savoury fillings.

• Zucchini and Cheese: Grate 1 Zucchini, squeeze out liquid.  Add to batter with 1cup of grated cheese
• Feta, Salami and Sundried tomato: Dice 100g feta, 50gs of Salami and a half dozen sundried tomato and add to batter.
• Corn and Cheese:  Drain a 200g tin of corn, and add to batter with 1/2 cup of cheese.
• Tuna, Corn and Cheese: Drain small tin of tuna and a 200g tin of corn, add to batter with 1/2 cup of cheese.
• Garlic and Parmesan:  Add 1/2-1tsp garlic powder to batter with 3Tbs of grated Parmesan cheese. 

Be as creative as you want with these!  

Mac and Cheese! Kinda...

We got to dinner time the other night and I could not work out what to have, so that meant I went through the kitchen going what can I defrost quickly, and what else can I add together.

I ended up with-

• ham
• peas and corn
• cheese
• pasta

Which adds together to make Mac and Cheese!  Kinda..

So onto the ingredients!  

What I used (I'll mark which is optional with an (O)):

• Pasta (though pre-cooked rice would work as well.  You'd just put it in at the end instead of adding the cooked pasta)
• Cheese
• Milk
• Flour
• Cream Cheese (O)
• Onion (O)
• Ham (O)
• Frozen Peas & Corn (O)

1) Cook the pasta as per the instructions.
2) While that's cooking, if using ham and onion, heat a saucepan and brown onion and heat the ham. Remove ham & onion.
3) Next step is we make a white sauce.  Mix approximately 1TB flour with enough milk to make a smooth paste.  Gradually add enough milk to bring up to 1cup.  Add to the saucepan, and cook over a medium heat, until thickened.  Make sure you stir regularly!
4) Add approximately 1cup of  cheese to sauce pan and mix through.  If adding cream cheese (I used about 1/2cup), add now.
5) A couple of minutes before the pasta finishes cooking, add the frozen veg to the water to cook.  Drain when done and add to cheese mixture.
6) Mix through and serve!

(I still can't get the pictures to go in their rotated format!)

What happens when I don't follow my meal plan: Savory Mince

Welcome to the first post of "What's Cooking?" also known as "What on earth can I do with these two mushroom, half a tomato, a zucchini and some salami?".

Before starting this blog, I want to point out I generally have a sort of well stocked pantry/freezer.  At any one time is it rare to find my kitchen without kidney beans, tinned tomato, cous cous/pasta/rice, frozen veggies, some form of frozen meat, flour and yeast. This isn't to say that I sometimes don't have them, but more often then not I do.

I also have a lot of additions like sun dried tomatoes, olives, picked onions, pickled carrots and other random stuff sprinkled through out the pantry and fridge.  My advice before anything else, if you know there are a couple of tinned staples you and your family will happily eat, stock up on them! With a tin of kidney beans, tinned tomatoes, some spices and some cous cous or rice, I can put a really basic, but still reasonably tasty Chilli Con Carne type dish together very quickly.

So on to last night's dinner!

This post is what I'm dubbing "When I don't follow my meal plan".  We were supposed to have hamburgers for dinner last night, but honestly, I could be bothered making them.

 So we had Savory Mince with Rice.

(I appologise profusely for image quality. I was taking these photo's on the phone.  Hopefully I'll find my camera soon!  I also don't know why the image is sideways.)

 

So  basically what makes up this dish is-

Onion (diced)

Garlic 

Mince

Mixed frozen vegetables

Tinned tomatoes

Beef Stock (1 cup)

Flour

Salt & Pepper

Rice to serve.

1.  Brown onion and garlic in a pan, and add mince.  Cook until mince is done.  

2. Chuck in tomatoes, frozen veg and beef stock. Let cook until the veg is done.

3.  Mix approx 2 Tbs flour with water to make a paste, and then add to the mince mixture.  Allow to thicken (should only take a couple of minuets).  Season to taste.

BAM! You're done!

And so ends the first post of "What's Cooking?".